What to do when you have 300 pages of reading per week but need community, accountability, and -- let's face it -- human interaction?

Start a reading group!

A graduate student at University of California - Berkeley and a small group of her fellow students, all in the coursework phase in a demanding interdisciplinary social sciences program, meet at a coffee shop every Wednesday morning. The rules: 1. Everyone must be reading. 2. No talking. "If two of us have something to discuss or need a break, we go outside to talk," she tells me. "It works great."

Dear Dissertation Diva,I have just suffered a major setback: the sudden death of my brother. I thought I'd finally have time to finish the dissertation now that I sent my daughter off to college. But I can barely think. Instead of writing up my lit review, I am dealing with my brother's disarray of unpaid bills, looking for insurance papers, and negotiating my own grief. How do I stay connected to my dissertation during this time of emotional upheaval?Thanks, Swamped & Sad

Dear Swamped & Sad:My condolences. This is a challenging time. You may feel like the you who was writing your dissertation last week is a million miles away. Here are 4 strategies to stay connected to your dissertation process:

Take time off to grieve. It's OK to do nothing. Don't pressure yourself by saying "I should be working on my dissertation." In time, you will return to it. It's normal to take time off from other jobs for family emergencies; take time off from your academic work right now.

Stay connected to your dissertation though visualization. Sit at your desk and make a visual inventory of what you see: The notes for your lit review. The stacks of
articles and books. Look at everything that you
have already created for yourself en route to reaching your goal. Then, when you are in a stressful
situation of, say, doing your brother's paperwork, take a moment to close your eyes and visualize your
workspace. See the notes you wrote waiting for you on your desk.
The article on research methods you printed out. Know that the work you've done is waiting for you to return. Connect to that part of you
that's not taking care of someone else, but is being true to your OWN
intellectual goals.

Transition back to working on your dissertation by spending time in your workspace. It may feel like all you can do is go and sit in your office. Good. Do that. It's a start. Keep remembering your big picture goals.

Use the dissertation work as a refuge from grief. Some see the dissertation as a source of stress, but when a family loss happens, you can use the dissertation writing process in quite the opposite way: as a sanctuary. An island in the stream. Try working for short bits at a time -- like 30 minutes. Read a paragraph of an article, and let your mind rest from the other kinds of tasks and from emotional upheaval. You may find that your brain is actually HAPPY to think about your dissertation topic, and not about the stressful tasks around a death in the family. Your dissertation process will gain new life and new meaning for you in the larger context of your life.

This past week, the Dissertation Diva helped two people to the finish line. (Congratulations to them!) October 1 -- this year, Monday October 2 -- marks an official deadline at some graduate schools for submission of the dissertation for a December PhD degree. Experiencing the final week of the process always strengthens my belief that regular, consistent, focused writing over a long period of time is what leads to a finished book-length project. Procrastination never pays. Eventually, the sand falls through the hourglass and the real due date is upon you. Dissertation writers who have written regularly, consistently, who fought procrastination tooth and claw on a daily basis, get to that last week with only minor edits to do. Proofreading. Pagination. Formatting. But no writing that needs to be done the week before the entire dissertation is due.

I wanted to impress upon those of you in the writing stage the importance of consistent, regular writing sessions (versus the 11th hour kind of writing). I know that writers come up with all sorts of excuses why NOW is not the best time to write. Perhaps you think you need to have more research done. Or you want more direction from your advisor. Or you're not inspired. The chair isn't comfortable. The weather is too gloomy. Too sunny. It's too loud. Too quiet. Too much data. Too little. Boring. Stalled. Tired. Overwhelmed. Overdue. All those reasons for not writing something today, right now, may be true. These reasons pull on you and convince you to wait for some future moment, when the weather is ideal, your ideas magically align in your brain into preformed complete paragraphs, and your advisor provides you with perfect, timely feedback. You are living in the future imaginary, instead of the real, difficult present.

To return you to the present, I want to share this quote by author Barbara Kingsolver:

"There is no perfect time to write. There is only now."

Succint inspiration. There is only now. As in today, right after you finish reading this post for inspiration. Write what you know about your topic, and what you don't know. Write about what you've read, and what you want to read. Write about how hard it is to write. Write your thoughts, questions, doubts, fears, and inklings about your topic. Seize the present. Write. Daily. Write. Now.

"Too busy.""Forgot.""Need to figure out how my external drive works.""I've never had problems with my computer before.""I have back up CDs...from last month.""I know I should."

Do these excuses for not backing up your hard-won research and writing files ring a bell?

Some of you have confessed that although you know you should, you don't actually, regularly, and faithfully back up your work!

If this describes you, you need to face the music. Figure out what's stopping you. Tackle this issue directly. Is it a technical glitch? Lack of knowledge? Lack of time? Overwork? Fatigue? A coctail of stress/fear/anxiety/overwhelm? Are there any underlying issues -- however surreptitious -- that may be causing you to self-sabotage at a critical moment in the completion process?

Maybe you simply don't have a plan of action. Right now, take action. 1. Commit to backing up your work weekly. 2. Mark a specific day and time -- set an alarm if you need to -- and intentionally do a back-up of your computer files to two off-site locations (for example: a server and an external drive/CD's/DVD that you store in a separate building from your computer).

I recommend a full back-up every Friday. Say TGIF and kick back while your computer burns your book draft or dissertation journal to CD, then stash the CD somewhere safe. Get those once-in-a-lifetime media files of that ethnographic ritual onto a portable external drive -- and store it off-site, of course. (Worse Case Scenario Logic: If a thieft takes your computer, s/he will probably take the expensive external drive sitting next to your computer, too, right?)

An easy additional step that can be done daily: Email your dissertation chapters to your own email account. Instant back-up!

You can also set up free email accounts specifically for storage (e.g. mydissertation@gmail.com).

Tempted to skip that yoga class or morning run because of an upcoming deadline?

Don't.

Think you lack time for an inspiring, relaxing fall hike in the woods because you have to write your dissertation -- the whole thing, today -- which is making you stressed out in the first place?

Think again!

Stress reduction strategies should be a priority during times of intense mental work. And a proven method of natural stress reduction is exercise. Call it physical activity, call it movement, but just do it. Make it something you enjoy, like salsa dancing. Chills you out, like tai chi. Challenges you, like mountain biking. Or lets you read the NY Times or watch CNN, like the treadmill at the university gym. Whatever it is, plug it into your iCal or schedule, and go.

If you don’t exercise, what better time to start than six months before that 300 page beast is due? I started training in karate in the last semester of writing my dissertation at Yale, and it changed my life. Not to mention: helped me maintain laser sharp focus on my writing. So, if you need motivation to exercise: sign up for a spin, yoga or tai chi class. Train for a 5K. Join a recreational sport team. At least get up from the computer and walk around the block.

Mind/body practices with an element of meditation are particularly helpful to writers. Exercise boosts oxygen flow to the brain, reduces stress, and increases alertness.

If you're not buying my line that exercise is good for your mind and body, then let me trying convincing you from a time management perspective: It is far more efficient to schedule exercise
into your busy week than to lose entire days or weeks of work to
stress or illness.

Exercise regularly when working on your dissertation, book, or
article. It will help you write better, finish faster, and stay sane!

Try This: During your work sessions, take breaks to rest your eyes and stretch your hands, arms, shoulders, neck and back. If you can, take a brisk 15 minute walk outside, using your eyes to focus on items in the distance to counteract the stress of focusing on the computer screen or text on a page.